Essex pub syndicate toast £187K EuroMillions win

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There’ll be plenty of offers to buy a round in The Kings Arms, in Essex, after the pub syndicate won EuroMillions. The ecstatic syndicate, made up of pub regulars and led by the pub’s landlady, haven’t stopped celebrating since learning news of their EuroMillions win on Valentine’s Day.

The syndicate of sixteen from The Kings Arms in Orsett, are each £11,694.36 better off after their ticket matched the five main numbers and one Lucky Star number in the EuroMillions draw on Friday 10th February.

A Valentine’s Day to remember

Landlady and syndicate leader ,Emma Crawford, discovered the win as she was putting a roast chicken in the oven in readiness for a Valentine’s meal. She said, “Although I’m the syndicate leader, I’ve got a bit of a reputation for being a bit slow at checking our tickets, sometimes not getting around to it until a few months later. So I have absolutely no idea what made me use the ticket scanning function on The National Lottery app on my phone to check that ticket on Valentine’s Day. There was a stack of tickets on the side in the kitchen and I popped the chicken in the oven, picked up my phone and scanned the top ticket all in one move. It just so happened the top ticket was worth £187,109.80.”

Not believing the amount that was showing on her phone she closed the app, then reopened it and scanned again only to see that it was still a winning ticket. Running downstairs she burst into the bar with her phone and said ‘someone needs to tell me if this is true or not’.

Emma’s sister and Chris Oakley, her partner, looked at Emma’s phone and the message before shouting in unison, “ring Camelot.”

Emma said, “Everyone in the pub was buzzing with excitement, laughing and chatting away, so I struggled to hear much of the call but I certainly heard when the win was confirmed! I gave a thumbs up and everyone let out a huge cheer. It was a really special moment.”

‘We’ve won the lottery!’

Emma immediately started to contact her fellow winners, calling and texting to say they needed an urgent syndicate meeting in the pub. One by one they all arrived in The Kings Arms to be greeted by those magic words, ‘we’ve won the lottery!'

For the syndicate, who are a very close knit gang sharing life’s trials and tribulations over the odd pint, the win that was discovered on Valentine’s Day really has been filled with love.

“I absolutely love this pub and our regulars so it’s totally apt that the win was discovered on Valentine’s. I’m not really one for ‘signs’ but everybody has been saying it couldn’t have come at a better time as so many of us can share the ‘love’ with those who really need some help.

“One of the syndicate is battling ill health and will now be able to properly recover without worrying about the need to get back to work. For myself and Chris, we will be using the windfall to cover my brother’s financial commitments for the coming months as he recovers from major surgery. This is something we could only have dreamt of before, now we will all be safe in the knowledge his recovery will be free of any financial stresses and he can focus on getting better.”

Other plans for syndicate winners may be less extreme but no less desired, a new kitchen, long dreamt of holidays and new cars are all on the list.

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